Sanity tested

That was one hell of a day. I slept like a baby last night.

I and my father went to the “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear” yesterday. It was an experience to say the least.

We woke at 7:30 and went to breakfast at McDonalds at about 8:30. We left for the “Dunn-Loring – Merrifield” Metro station (Metro is the DC area subway system) at about 9:00 and got there at about quarter to 10:00.

It was packed.

We got in line to buy a ticket and didn’t get one until 11:15. Getting on the subway was a whole other problem. The station we were at was only the second one on the Orange Line, but the trains coming from the first were packed. The only way to get on was to take the train in the opposite direction to the last station and have the train turn around. At one point an empty train came to the station. Everyone cheered.

The train did not stop. Everyone booed.

We finally got on a train at about 12:15, 15 minutes into the start of the rally. People were still standing in long lines at every station to buy a ticket. An off ramp to a Metro parking lot was backed up. There was no room left on the train to hold any more people and stop after stop left more and more people upset.

We got there at 1:00, an hour into it. We slowly made our way to as close as we could get. I can tell they did not plan on having this many people. Most of the fields on the Mall were closed for restoration. But that didn’t stop anybody! Also, the sound system was bad; part technical and part not having any speakers for the people in the back. (People stretched as far back as the Washington Monument. They had screens and speakers less than half way to the monument) Most of the applause from our section came from people complaining about the sound and a guy trying to climb a tree.

What I did hear and see was awesome and funny. It was a good mixture of comedy and message. The message was the best (paraphrased):

“We may be different but we all love this nation. We need to ignore our differences to work together to make it great. We shouldn’t look at each other as Democrats or Republicans, Liberals or Conservatives. Stop accusing everyone of being racists or homophobes (because it is offensive to those who really work hard to hate!). The “country's 24-hour politico pundit perpetual panic conflictinator” only serves to prevent us from working together. “If we amplify everything, we hear nothing.”

For a rally to “Restore Sanity”, there sure were a lot of crazies there…

 (Not pictured: A group of Nixon's)

Also, some people were actually there to support a cause; some there for the rally (Prop 19 supporters), some there every weekend (I didn’t even know that the Japanese were kidnapping children!) I was also reminded of what a college student (80% of the ‘Daily Show/Colbert viewers) was like; horney, immature (yes, the station is called Ballston, ha ha ha...), self-righteous jerks (like certain people from certain classes I had that shall remain nameless, because I can’t remember their name). I was surprised by the age diversity of the rally goers. Even if 80% are college students the rest were 30 to 60 year olds.

After the rally we decided to walk around, because the Metro would be a madhouse. We walked to the Lincoln Memorial. After two hours of walking around, the subways were still full, but not as bad as coming in. The train was held up briefly for a “sick” person on a previous train. We got back at about 6:00 or 6:30.

What a day.